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Things I was told about giving my baby a Pacifier | Mrs Jibril

I was one of those mums who didn’t pack a dummy in my hospital bag as I went to have my baby because I thought I wouldn’t need it. As most first time mums I was wrong. Fast-forward 22 months later and my baby is a total sucker for his dummy and we haven’t weaned him off completely yet. I’m such a dummy for the dummy… Pun intended!

Some of you may remember that we lived in Kenya and I received criticism from many people because using a pacifier isn’t very common there.

Here are some of the questions and statements I heard while I was there and some I still get today even though we’re in Australia.

Does it really sooth him? Does it work? How does it work?

The main reason any mum would use a pacifier is to sooth their baby when he’s a little cranky or unsettled. Baby E isn’t an exception, I gave him his first dummy to sooth him.

Doesn’t dummies disturb his sleep?

Small babies go through so many things, witching hours to sleep regression to teething which all interfere with the baby’s sleep. When the baby falls a sleep eventually the dummy falls out and he can’t even sense it if he is in deep sleep.

Does it make him sleep?

Surprisingly when we give our baby his dummy if he’s tired he would sleep. Trust me if he’s not sleepy no dummy or any trick can make him fall asleep.

He will never speak! He will end up with speech delay because of the dummy!

This is a very silly assumption and extremely inappropriate, there is no mother that tries to hinder her child’s development deliberately. Some children who never used a pacifier end up with speech delay.

Doesn’t the dummy mess up his teeth? He’ll have crooked teeth

I researched about it and asked various medical professionals; I was assured that dummies don’t ruin the baby’s teeth. This is my first child so I wouldn’t know until he grows up if he will get buck and crooked teeth or not after he looses his cute pearly milky teeth. I have one solution for this problem if it ever happens “braces”.

Whether your child sucks a dummy or their thumb, it eventually doesn’t matter as long as your baby happy and healthy.

We had a goal to ditch the pacifier by baby E’s 1st birthday and we failed miserably. Are we ready to ditch it soon? Maybe..

Our goal is now to get wean him off by his 2nd birthday in 2 months. Wish us luck.

Hey lovely,
personally I will whatever makes the baby sleep during the night. I hope our boys will just outgrow it without us having to wean them off it.. wishful thinking lol
Thanks sweetheart for reading my post 🙂

Love the post! I used a dummy month 1 until month 6. The reason I weaned her off was the fact that I really wanted her to learn to selfsoothe at night, she would only sleep with dummy. Another reason was the fact that I had to get up so many times a night when it had fallen out, it was a nightmare for both me n baby lol. How I weaned her: day 1: remove dummy during the day when she’s awake, day2: remove dummy during day naps too, day3: remove dummy during the night (worst one to deal with but after a few hours of on n off crying she ended up having the best sleep of her life without the dummy!) me and hubby never looked back after that lol. It might be tougher for you as your little one is older and smarter! Just make sure you stay persistent, good luck hun!x

Hey sweetheart, we tried the same method when he turned one or maybe a little younger before he learned how to actually find his dummy in his cot and put it back in his mouth. It was such a struggle, I threw all the dummies in the rubbish twice so that I don’t get tempted to give it to him, both times we had to rush out and buy new ones..lol
His doctor said we need to be persistent and not give in and he will cope well and forget about the dummy but my husband and mum always give it back to him if he cries…lol
Thanks for commenting and welcome back to blogging, I missed my blogging BFF xx

Before we had Harry there were only really two things we were dead set against. The first was completed sleeping, I didn’t agree with it and was worried we wouldn’t wean him off if we started it… like you, we are still doing it sometimes post his first birthday and I’m of the opinion that if that’s what he needs sometimes that’s what we will do. The second was a dummy, as teacher my partner has seen many children who (at secondary school) have had their speech affected by having a dummy when they were younger. Because of that it’s been the one thing he has felt very strongly about as a parent and I have supported him on that. The truth is, we haven’t needed one, we have found other ways to pacify Harry. I absolutely believe it is a parent’s choice and it’s one of those conversations I wish wasn’t controversial (it’s none of my business what anyone else does and it’s none of theirs what I do), but I DO think you have to consider the evidence surrounding these things before you make your decision. Interesting read 🙂 #TwinklyTuesday

I agree that you need to consider evidence around it and make a sound decision that suits you and your baby. When I first introduced a dummy to my son it was actually my midwife who suggested it to my husband and myself to sooth our newborn, it was either that or giving him our finger to suck on!!! I picked the dummy. I asked many medical professionals.. our gp, MCHN, my son’s pediatrician about how the impact of the dummy, they all agreed by 3 it needs to go which I don’t mind.
Like you said I wish people wouldn’t see it as a big deal and give mums a hard time about it.

Love this 🙂 We use a dummy with Florence as it helps to soothe her off to sleep when she’s tired & really helps to ease hiccups (which she gets about 10 times a day!!) .She will happily go without it when she’s awake and playing. I really think it’s personal preference :). #TwinklyTuesday

#1 didn’t use one and I wished many times she had as she was a horrendous sleeper, #2 took one and we both loved it. I took it away at 2 and a couple months,- it was hindering her speech a bit and cognitively she took off after ditching it which may be a coincidence. Idk. We talked about her being a big girl now and took away in the car first. Then I told her Santa was taking it to give to new babies bc she was now a big girl. She got her big girl bed and I think we even bought panties too. Lol. It was rough. But not for too long. She still reminisced about it fondly. You do you mommy!! #twinklytuesday

awww that’s such a great story, thanks for sharing your experience. My friend told me about a book but I can’t remember the name where it tells a story about giving away the dummy and it comes with a little bag that the kid can put all his dummies in at the end. Might get that and try it because he loves books and communicating to him that now he’s a big boy will also help. We’re planning to move him to a big boy bed when he turns two 🙂
Thanks for commenting and reading my post, love the support mummy xx

It’s so silly the questions that different people ask. Our son has used a pacifier since pretty much the beginning. When he was just home, he relied on it to sleep, even when he was napping. We kept one clipped to him all the time.
Miraculously, he has weaned himself. (he’s 10 months now) He will still put it in his mouth when it’s offered at bed time, but during the day he will use the nuk as a toy instead of sucking on it. I think we will phase it out entirely before he reattaches himself.

I know some people will have something negative to say about anything..lol
I started using a dummy right at the start as well.
I hope my son weans himself off, he slept twice without it. Once it was during nap time and once during bedtime when my brother was babysitting him. So I know that he can sleep without but I don’t want him to cry if I take it away from him.
Your son seems to be loosing interest in the dummy I hope he forgets about it with time.
Thanks for reading my post and commenting xx

I was also anti-dummy, we didn’t use a dummy but only because they wouldn’t take it, we did try. Both of mine are thumb suckers. You can’t take a thumb away. My little boy is almost four, we went to the dentist recently and she said his teeth had started to move forward and so he needed to stop sucking his thumb. He only sucks it when he is tired but the dentist saying his teeth were moving worried me. Apparently it was enough for him to stop doing it though!!
You’ll get there, good luck x #TriumphantTales

I was a big thumb sucker growing up and I did it when I was well over 4 years old, I even remember how hard my mum tried to get me to stop. Eventually I outgrew it and hoping my son will also outgrow his dummy.
Thanks for commenting Jo xx

I wasnt anti or even pro dummies, but i bought some “just incase.” It helped set a routine as he only had it when we put him in his crib for a nap and bedtime but he stopped taking it after a while and a blanket has been replaced!
He wont go anywhere without it, its rarely out of his sight let alone out of his hands and at night he even chews one corner of it! Im sure someone will suggest this will somehow affect his teeth and lord help me if i lose the blanket, at least dummies are easily replaceable! #globalblogging

wow dummies are so easy to replace compared to a blanket, I remember one mum’s son was attached to a soft cuddly toy and it was starting tear so she was looking for it everywhere to find a replacement because her baby won’t sleep without it.
Good luck, my only tip is if you ever find a similar blanket buy it so that you always have a backup, nothing worse than a crying baby.
Thanks for sharing your experience with me and commenting on my post

Zac took a dummy and he weaned himself off at 2 years. I have desperatly tried to give Oscar a dummy but he won’t take one! He chews on it but it doesn’t soothe him – which means he is very attached to my boob! Thanks for linking up with #TwinklyTuesday

oh my sister tried the dummy with all her 5 kids they all refused but they were amazing at breastfeeding. My boobs couldn’t handle it if my son was too attached to them, they were always too sore.. lol
Thanks for sharing your experience and commenting xx

The speech one is the biggest load of rubbish I’ve ever heard. Little Man had a dummy and he’s a right chatterbox with an incredible vocabulary! Good luck with weaning! 🙂 Thanks for joining in with #TriumphantTales, hope to see you again Tuesday.

I used a pacifier with all of my kids. It took quite a few tricks to get them weaned off of them, but to me, it was well worth it.
There is still loads of controversy over whether or not it’s worth using.

I was surprised the amount of controversy surrounding something so small in my opinion. It was really worth it, it helped sooth my son and it kept me a little sane as well…lol
Thanks for reading my post and commenting lovely xx

yeah the early months when the baby can’t put back the dummy in their mouth were really hard but my son used to cry and scream if we don’t stick it back in so we ended up having him sleep in the bed with us sometimes to make it easier.
Thanks for reading my post April and commenting xx